Rabbit rabbit (issue No. 191) This week:
Pritzker unleashes the weapon of words against the Trump regime
The following passage, from Gov. JB Pritzker’s keynote address Sunday at a New Hampshire Democratic Party fundraising dinner in Manchester, has gotten a lot of attention and some pushback:
The Illinois Republican Party rushed to the fainting couch in a news release Monday headlined, “Pritzker Calls For Violence Toward Republicans.”
The Tribune reported:
Easy there, Grand Old Paranoids. Fighting with “every microphone and megaphone that we have” is call for protests and rhetoric, not a call to take up bear spray, baseball bats and flagpoles, as those who answered the call from Dear Leader did on Jan. 6, 2021.
Donald Trump’s fondness for violence and violent rhetoric is well documented and includes:
See also “We analyzed 9 years of Trump political speeches, and his violent rhetoric has increased dramatically” in The Conversation. And of course, Trump pardoned everyone convicted of violent attacks on police on Jan. 6. I seem to have missed the Illinois Republicans’ lamentations about that. So they can spare us their feeble pleas for civility. Pritzker’s speech was a call to action, not to arms. He is urging Democrats to protest at the offices of Republican elected officials, not threaten them with stun guns, punch them in the face or poop on their desks. “The peace that I’m talking about (in saying ‘Republicans cannot know a moment of peace’) is making sure that they know at all times that the American public opposes the policies of congressional Republicans and of the White House,” he said Monday when questioned by reporters. Sure, the speech was obviously another move to position himself as the Democratic nominee for president in 2028 — he’s going to be on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” tonight on ABC — but it should also play well at home where he may run for reelection next year. If you don’t have time to read the whole speech, here are some other highlights:
Last week’s winning quipThat awkward moment when you're not sure if you actually have free time or if you're just forgetting something. — @andshewasgone1Here are this week’s nominees and the winner of the Tuesday visual-jokes poll. Here is the direct link to the new poll. News & ViewsNews: The Trump regime is assessing ‘ways to persuade women to have more children’View: Proposals include a $5,000 cash baby bonus and funding for “programs that educate women on their menstrual cycles — in part so they can better understand when they are ovulating and able to conceive.” But how about working hard to mitigate the effects of global climate change, implementing a “Medicare for All” option, and subsidizing child care and extended parental leave policies? I have heard from some young women that they’re reluctant to bring children into a world that feels as though it’s spinning dangerously out of control. Offer hope for a brighter future in a safe, clean, peaceful world, and they and their partners would be likelier to reproduce.
News: The Tribune Editorial Board twists its collective hankie and decries coarse language from DemocratsView: Give me a fucking break. No major figure in American politics has ever done more to inject vulgarity and impolite language into our discourse than Donald Trump. Here’s The New York Times reporting on an Oct. 28 Trump rally at Madison Square Garden:
So now comes the Tribune Editorial Board to wag its institutional finger at … the Democrats?
The fact that in the second paragraph of the editorial, the board contends that “Democrats got walloped” last fall — a false summation of a very close election that the editorial board clings to, who knows why — by a cheerfully, brazenly profane opponent did not derail this prissy scolding. That’s So Brandon!Updates on the misadventures of Chicago’s mayor
Land of Linkin’
Squaring up the newsThis is a bonus supplement to the Land of Linkin’ from veteran radio, internet and newspaper journalist Charlie Meyerson. Each week, he offers a selection of intriguing links from his daily email news briefing Chicago Public Square: ■ Wrong-home horrors: An Oklahoma mom and her daughters—all U.S. citizens—were “traumatized … for life” after armed federal immigration agents mistakenly raided their home, took their phones and computers and life savings, leaving them, as MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow explains, no contact information or guidance on how to get it all back. ■ The city of Chicago’s settled with a family whose home cops mistakenly raided, pointing guns, during a 4-year-old’s birthday party. ■ “Mass protests … mobilization … disruption”: Politico’s Shia Kapos says that call over the weekend from Gov. Pritzker for action against Donald Trump’s administration has struck a nerve among Republicans and Democrats. ■ Historian Heather Cox Richardson perceives “a change afoot in the Democratic Party … as its leaders shift from trying to find common ground with Republicans to standing firmly against MAGAs.” ■ Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer—a potential presidential candidate—shared a hug with Trump. ■ The Associated Press reports that Trump’s aiming to use a little-known federal agency to overhaul U.S. elections. ■ Wonkette’s Evan Hurst asks: “Would you like some truly happy news? … Time for some poll porn!” ■ Everyone Is Entitled to My Own Opinion columnist Jeff Tiedrich: “Shh! Don’t wake the elderly golfer. Funerals make him sleepy.” ■ The New Republic: “Fox News Forced to Admit That Everyone Hates Trump.” ■ Forward: An “Antisemitism Awareness Act” advancing in the U.S. Senate now has a clause to protect those who preach that Jews killed Jesus. ■ The New York Times (gift link): In what looked at first like a scam, the Trump administration texted dozens of current and former university employees with a text message asking if they’re Jewish. ■ Wisconsin’s Supreme Court—controlled by liberals, 4-3—has suspended a judge accused of helping a man evade immigration authorities. ■ Columnist Charlie Sykes sees CBS parent Paramount on the verge of “the most pathetic surrender so far.” ■ One journalist not bowing: ABC’s Terry Moran—who The Daily Beast says fact-checked Trump right to his face. ■ Take that, early adopters: If you bought one of the first Nest smart thermostats, brace for it to get dumb in October—but you’ll get a discount on a replacement. ■ If you’re a few days behind on “Jeopardy!,” don’t read this article about a 20-year-old contestant from the University of Chicago. ■ Cord Cutter Weekly’s ever-insightful Jared Newman on (HBO)Max’s password-sharing crackdown: Don’t pay until they force you to—and there are ways to avoid being forced to. Also: How to get around Netflix’s anti-sharing rules. ■ “Secret” radio: With local news in decline on commercial airwaves, Nieman Lab turns a spotlight on audio information services where—every day, around the clock, across the country—hundreds of volunteers read local, national and international news—and books and magazines, too. (In Chicago, it’s CRIS.) ■ In a first for Illinois, a new suburban theater will extend some movie scenes onto the auditorium’s left and right walls. You can (and should) subscribe to Chicago Public Square free here. Mary Schmich: Highlights from a podcast interviewMy former colleague Mary Schmich was interviewed recently by Mark Armstrong, editor of the Nieman Storyboard podcast, about “Division Street Revisited,” the seven-part documentary audio series that updates the lives of a group of people Studs Terkel interviewed for his 1967 oral history “Division Street.” Here are a few excerpts from the transcript: I came into column writing at a point in my life where I didn't really think I wanted to write a column. When I was younger, I did. I was very full of opinions. And then I had to be — got to be — a real reporter for a long time. I covered the South for the Tribune. And I came to just understand how little I knew and not trust myself to have huge opinions on whatever the news of the day was. Because I came to see that if you have not reported the news, you don't understand the news. Even when you do report it, you're having trouble understanding it. But wow, you're just reading about it and reacting? What are you talking about? So, I mean, I always had an approach to column writing, which was a melding of opinion and storytelling. Because I do think the stories you choose to tell express ideas, express viewpoints. Sometimes better than the hammer-on-the-head opinion. One thing I got from column writing — a really important thing — was how to write tight and short. Because for most of my time at the Tribune, the column was literally in a box. And you couldn't break out of the box. Every now and then you could. But you had to figure out, what can I say in the space and time I have today? Over the years, I cultivated three essential mantras, which (were): Panic is my muse. Deadlines crowd out doubt. It always gets done. … I started writing (the comic strip “Brenda Starr”) having no clue what I was doing. I learned along the way. But once again, I think all of these forms of storytelling are different, and they require different skills. And yet, a story's a story. So with writing the comic strip, first of all, there's no reporting. You’re just making stuff up, right? But I think on some level, it did help me to visualize stories. Obviously, I wasn't doing the drawing, but I had to write in a way that would allow the artist to draw. I don't know how to get too lofty about that, but I do think it probably accentuated my sense of how characters and dialogue help to carry a story. … On the global phenomenon that was “Wear Sunscreen”: (“Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young,” a column known colloquially as “Wear sunscreen”) was a column I wrote in an afternoon, in a panic, because I had nothing else to write. So, we're going back to my "deadlines crowd out doubt, panic is my muse, it always gets done" philosophy, right? I just thought, well, it's graduation time, I'll write this fake graduation speech. M&M's and a cappuccino and a deadline, and I wrote it. And I remember thinking, “Oh, I kind of like that.” I wouldn't always think that, but “I kind of like that. “ And then it just took on this unbelievable life of its own. It was early days of the internet, and it went viral before I think “viral” was even a term. (The speech got) attributed to Kurt Vonnegut, which helped to elevate it, because now it's attached to a famous, cult-famous writer. And then the fact that it wasn't really him elevated it a little more. So now you've got the whole element of, “Oh my God, look at this evil internet, what it can do, the lies it can tell.” And then Baz Luhrmann swoops in and puts it over some music that he'd used in his movie "Romeo and Juliet." Turns it into a spoken-word piece. Originally around seven minutes. Did well in Australia. And then some radio station cut it down to five minutes. … And then The New York Times did a little blurb. I mean, the steps in this are fascinating, the steps to something rising in the cultural consciousness. Then it was off. And all of a sudden, it was just everywhere. Part of what I take from it is, just do your work, because you never know what's going to come of it. I always say there was a ghost in that piece. There was some unspoken stuff in that piece that people felt. … also known as the Axiom of ChoiceMath nerds will know why I am inspired to highlight this post. One of my grandfather’s other contributions to the world was serving as the founding editor and publisher of the first iteration of the Picayune Sentinel. Slanted expressionHere are three quotes from Jens Ludwig, director of the University of Chicago Crime Lab, from an interview published in the Sun-Times over the weekend.
I wasn’t familiar with the idiom, though in context, the meaning of “on tilt” is fairly clear. It refers to making irrational decisions fueled by frustration or other forms of emotional distress. But what’s the connection to poker? In his 2015 book “Gambling with the Myth of the American Dream,” University of Nebraska communications professor Aaron Duncan wrote:
In her book “Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don't Have All the Facts,” former poker champion Annie Betts writes:
In his 1984 book “Wired: The Short Life and Fast Times of John Belushi,” author Bob Woodward described the coked-up actor at one point as “like a pinball machine on tilt, out of control.” Pinball has since largely been replaced by video gaming, and the poker players — and criminologists — have taken the term for their own. But it seems useful enough that we should all adopt it. While I’m trying to make an expression happen …I’m not sure whom to credit for “The Art of the Kneel” — a play on Donald Trump’s “The Art of the Deal” — but it’s a handy bit of wordplay to use as shorthand for whenever a news organization, university, law firm, corporate CEO or foreign leader capitulates to Trump’s bullying tactics. Minced WordsCate Plys, Austin Berg, Marj Halperin and I joined host John Williams on this week’s episode of “The Mincing Rascals” podcast. We chatted about the upcoming Senate race, JB Pritzker’s speech, efforts to contain plastic waste and other topics in the news. Traffic lights:
Subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts. Or bookmark this page. If you’re not a podcast listener, you can hear an edited version of the show at 8 p.m. most Saturday evenings on WGN-AM 720. Read the background bios of some regular panelists here. QuotablesA collection of compelling, sometimes appalling passages I’ve encountered lately
QuipsIn Tuesday’s paid-subscriber editions, I present my favorite tweets that rely on visual humor. Subscribers then vote for their favorite. Here is the winner from this week’s contest: The new nominees for Quip of the Week:
Vote here and check the current results in the poll. For instructions and guidelines regarding the poll, click here. Why the new name for this feature? See “I’m rebranding ‘Tweet of the Week’ in a gesture of contempt for Elon Musk.” Good SportsThe legend has yet to be written about the ‘legendary’ Shedeur SandersThe story of Shedeur Sanders, the University of Colorado’s star quarterback, has yet to be written. Sanders was so sure he was going to be a high first-round draft pick in last weekend’s NFL draft that he outfitted a whole room for the celebration, complete with huge dollar signs and the word “Legendary” everywhere you looked: But round after round, he went undrafted. This defied the prognostications of the cognoscenti in sports media and sparked accusations of racism — even though the first three players chosen were Black — along with an outpouring of schadenfreude that the extremely cocky son of NFL Hall of Fame defensive back (and MLB standout) Deion Sanders was being brought down more than a few pegs for not being nearly as potentially “legendary” as he thought. The obvious response to this is not outrage or happiness, but a reflective, “We’ll see, won’t we?” NFL owners and general managers want to win. And the fact that all 32 teams passed on Sanders until the fifth round when the Cleveland Browns finally called his name suggests an overwhelming consensus that he’s likely to be a drag on the team that selects him. The story will end either when Sanders washes out of the league in a few years, proving the consensus right, or when he plays his way into the starting lineup and proves the doubters wrong with performances that have others calling him “legendary.” Owners and general managers have been wrong before. NFL greats chosen in the fifth round or later include Herschel Walker, Tyreek Hill, Tom Brady, Terrell Davis and Shannon Sharpe. Talent has a way of winning out in professional sports. We’ll see how much of it Sanders actually has. Sox WatchAfter Wednesday night’s loss to the Milwaukee Brewers, the White Sox are 7-22,. Their current winning percentage of .241 puts them on pace to 123 games, two more than they lost last year when they set the mark for most losses in a Major League Baseball season. Tune of the WeekExercising personal privilege to highlight a country gospel song I heard recently that had somehow escaped my notice: Oh, the Baptists go by water and the Methodists go by land Watson referred to “You Must Come In at the Door,” credited to Tin Pan Alley songwriter Sunny Skylar, as “one you can pat your foot to.” It’s a version of “So Hi,” a song I learned from recordings of the Kingston Trio. The notion of heaven being too large shows up in the Black gospel tradition as well. I can’t identify the Bible verse that might be closely related to this sentiment. A little help, exegetes? I’ve been opening up Tune of the Week nominations in an effort to bring some newer sounds to the mix. I’m asking readers to use the comments area for paid subscribers or to email me to leave nominations (post-2000 releases, please!) along with YouTube links and at least a few sentences explaining why the nominated song is meaningful or delightful to you. Mistakes were madeWhen I become aware of errors in the Picayune Sentinel, I quickly correct them in the online version, but since many of you read just the email version, which I can’t correct after the fact, I will use this space periodically to alert you to meaningful mistakes I’ve made. (Not typos, in other words.) In the Tune of the Week in PS 190, I typed that Tom McNamee had retired as editorial page editor of the Sun-Times in 2001, when he actually retired in 2021 (as the link to a Robert Feder column correctly said). This is not the first time I’ve gotten my fingers tangled when it comes to 2021 and 2001, and I have no excuses or plausible explanations, only regrets. InfoEric Zorn is a former opinion columnist for the Chicago Tribune. Find a longer bio and contact information here. This issue exceeds in size the maximum length for a standard email. To read the entire issue in your browser, click on the headline link above. Paid subscribers receive each Picayune Plus in their email inbox each Tuesday, are part of our civil and productive commenting community and enjoy the sublime satisfaction of supporting this enterprise. Browse and search back issues here. ContactYou can email me at ericzorn@gmail.com or by clicking here: I read all the messages that come in, but I do most of my interacting with readers in the comments section beneath each issue. Some of those letters I reprint and respond to in the Z-mail section of Tuesday’s Picayune Plus, which is delivered to paid subscribers and available to all readers later Tuesday. Check there for responses. If you don’t want me to use the full name on your email or your comments, let me know how you’d like to be identified. Social media
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UNDER CONSTRUCTION - MOVED TO MIDDLEBORO REVIEW AND SO ON https://middlebororeviewandsoon.blogspot.com/
Saturday, May 17, 2025
JB Pritzker gave 'em hell in New Hampshire
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